A Prayer for the City

In many ways, Buzz Bissinger's "A Prayer for the City" is one of the most remarkable books ever written about an American city.In stark and sometimes shocking detail, Bissinger lays out the crises assailing the modern urban core: violence, poverty, economic development, poor public educational systems and so on. What's truly wonderful about Bissinger's book is that he leaves so many questions open. He isn't shallow or dismissive about these urban dilemmas; Bissinger doesn't give pat answers or bromides about how these problems can be solved.And that's a remarkable achievement on the author's part, particularly given the manner in which he structures this book. Though he sketches the lives of several Philadelphia citizens, there are undeniably two central characters in this book: Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and his Chief of Staff David Cohen. In some ways -- and I think Bissinger purposefully and effectively conveys this image - Rendell and Cohen should be seen as two sides of the same coin. Both Rendell and Cohen possess essential characteristics that will be needed in the fight to save the city, but the skills of each are different and, as such, they need each other to do what must be done. Rendell is the affable, easy-mannered, though sometimes short-tempered old politician who is out front. Cohen is the workaholic lawyer whose ruthless attention to the minutiae and detail of public policy brings him 17-hour days and little public glory. The highly public role Rendell plays is layed out in one particularly moving section toward the beginning of the book. Bissinger details a funereal November, 1994 car ride that Rendell took to a city hospital where a police patrolman who had been shot was being treated. Bissinger describes Rendell's interaction with the policeman's family, as well as his palpable anger that a patrolman could be so senselessly cut down in the line of duty. In moving language, Bissinger shows the depth of the problem confronting Rendell and Cohen.In addition to the generic problems besetting Philadelphia, Bissinger also details those specific to Pennsylvania's largest city. Throughout the book, Bissinger writes of Rendell's and Cohen's attempts to save the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard from closure by the U.S. Department of the Navy. The story of the struggle for the shipyard, which means the difference between Philadelphia losing or keeping thousands of crucial jobs, provides a penetrating insight into how the municipal and federal governments often move in disparate directions, and how that can have staggering consequences for the local level.Bissinger's tone in this book is somber, without veering into the maudlin. The author provides great detail about urban problems, but not in a voyeuristic or exploitative way. Though he is clearly rooting for Rendell, Bissinger does not become fawning or mawkish. Indeed, Bissinger's reporting is impeccable, due no doubt to the wide-open access to Rendell he was clearly granted. Primarily,

Buzz Bissinger, whose book "Friday Night Lights" is a provocative page-turner on the world of high school sports, accomplishes the same effect with urban government here. I was born and raised within 30 miles of Philadelphia and now live in Houston, and this book drained my emotions about the city I still think of as home as well as my new home. In showing how Ed Rendell used all of his character and will to turn the city around, and also demonstrating how he was powerless in many of his attempts to achieve reform, Bissinger proves that Rendell fought the good fight and that others must as well if our cities are to be saved. His final chapter, on the fate of the city's Navy yard, pulses with human drama.

As a resident of a Philadelphia suburb I have more than a casual interest in the subject matter and I wasn't disappointed. Bissinger is an excellent writer, and I was especially impressed how he kept following the real-life plights of several different city citizens (one a black grandmother in a horrible neighborhood, the other a white middle-aged navy yard worker, etc.). The author does a superb job of detailing why the problems of America's cities today are extremely complex and possibly insurmountable. And his unbiased portrait of Mayor Rendell is not always flattering but is always humane.

The city of Philadelphia was two-steps from fiscal chaos in 1991 when Ed Rendell was elected mayor. In just four years Rendell pulled the city from the brink of disaster with hard work and gritty determination. This book is an outstanding narrative of Rendell's first term as mayor, giving the reader a wonderful look at the way the city government works and what life is like for the residents of one of America's greatest cities. Anyone who reads this book will become an instant fan of Mayor Rendell and the author.

When Ed Rendell took office, he promised that he would work overtime to saving Philadelphia. From that moment on, Buzz Bissinger was there to record his successes and failures. His new journalism prose not only tells Rendell's story, but takes the reader through the process by which this once-great American city has withered under the pressures of crime, poverty, drugs, unemployment, and population loss. Bissinger explains, in part, why people leave the city for the suburbs and how the Federal government's urban policy has favored suburban sprawl and encouraged a white flight during the past 50 years. Through the eyes of a ship-yard worker, a dedicated preacher, a city prosecutor, and a hopeful woman who moves to the city in the hope of preserving it, Bissinger adds the voices of common folks to his narrative. But, in the end, the book blends hope and despair. In spite of his efforts, Rendell's work is not enough. A mayor alone cannot save the city, so long as his ideas are held hostage by the recalcitrant forces of greedy unions and politicos who owe their careers to demagoguery and racially divisive politics. Bissinger doesn't pull any punches in this area: he talks not only about corrupt cops, but about the leaders in Philadelphia's ethnic communities who refuse to cooperate with Rendell because they'd rather reap political gain by publicly parting with him. In the end, it is clear that even though Rendell is the hardest working mayor in the city's history, even he can't do enough. It will not only take a reform-minded mayor and administration, but a willing citizenry and a serious alteration in Federal and State policy before we can revitalize the American city. But electing Ed Rendell seems like the best possible start, and a refreshing contrast to the out-of-touch political operatives who regularly grace our newsprint and televisions.